The Other Presidential Race
ALA contenders agree on most issues
Staff -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2000
She believes in recruiting a more diverse group of professionals. So does he. She supports equal access to information for all. So does he. She advocates continuing education for librarians. And--you guessed it--so does he. The candidates running for the 2001-2002 American Library Association presidency--Claudia B. Sumler and John W. Berry--acknowledged that they shared similar outlooks in their speeches at ALA's midwinter meeting in mid-January in San Antonio, TX. "We agree on a lot of things," says Berry, "but our experience has been different." Sumler's background is primarily in public libraries. Director of the Camden County (NJ) Library System, Sumler was previously head of the Cooperating Library of Central Maryland, a consortium in the Baltimore area. Berry, on the other hand, comes from the academic library community and is currently the executive director of NILRC, a consortium based in River Forest, IL, of community colleges, colleges, and universities. On the issue of Internet filtering, both candidates carried the "local control" banner. "ALA should ensure that there's no legislation passed that requires Internet filtering," says Sumler, thus allowing local libraries to make their own decisions on filtering. "ALA has a good policy, a high-road policy," chimed in Berry, referring to ALA's anti-filtering stance, which has been softened to allow for local decision making. More information on the candidates is available at www.ala.org/alaorg/election00/. Ballots will be mailed in March, and election results will be announced May 4.--R. O.
